Long-term incidence and recurrence of common mental disorders after abortion. A Dutch prospective cohort study

Abstract

In a previous study (Van Ditzhuijzen et al., 2017) we investigated the incidence and recurrence of mental disorders 2.5 to 3 years post-abortion. The aim of the current study was to extend these findings with longer term follow up data, up until 5–6 years post-abortion. We compared data of women who had had an abortion of the Dutch Abortion and Mental Health Study (DAMHS) to women who did not have an abortion from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study-2 (NEMESIS-2) (Ntotal = 2227). We used 1-to-1 matching on background confounding variables and measured post-abortion incidence and recurrence of common DSM-IV mental disorders (mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders) using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) version 3.0. After matching on confounding variables, abortion did not increase the likelihood that women had incident or recurrent mental disorders in the 5–6 years post-abortion (any incident mental disorder: OR = 3.66, p = .16; any recurrent mental disorder: OR = 0.22, p = .47). We found no evidence that experiencing an abortion increases the risk on new or recurrent mental disorders on the longer term.